Refugee Successfully Housed
Four years ago, Irinia* watched rockets fly by her apartment in Ukraine. Today, thanks in part to assistance from Miami Valley CAP’s Greene County office, she has a safe home in which to cook and practice her English.
Irinia was a retired widow living in an apartment in Zaporizhzhia, a Russian speaking city in Ukraine, when bombs started falling.
“I saw through the window how the rockets flew by,” she said. “I ran into the hallway, my arms and legs shaking like a deer. You can’t even imagine how scary it was. People were running. Everything was burning.”
After arriving in the United States under the federal United for Ukraine asylum program in November 2022, Irinia lived briefly with some people of her nationality in Columbus until she learned of available dorm rooms on a school campus in Xenia, where other Ukranians were also living here in Ohio.
After living in the dormitory for a year and a half, Irinia and the friends she had made were asked to vacate. Fortunately, she had met Loretta and Daniel while walking in the neighborhood near the dorms. With time tight and her new friend knowing little English, Loretta found her way to the MVCAP shelter office in Xenia near the end of June 2025.
“We had a unique situation and a challenge,” said Greene County Director Brent Robinson. “We were going to get her housed.”
Case Manager Nick Trimbach imagined how he would feel if roles were reversed and he were facing homelessness in a country where he didn’t speak the language.
“We go out of our way to help everyone, but I also put on my empathy shoes,” he said. “I felt strongly. If the roles were reversed, I would be terrified.”
Working with Loretta and translation apps, Trimbach was able to move Irinia into Harding Place in mid-July.
“He gave me a roof over my head,” Irinia said. “I am very grateful. I’d already lost all hope but it turned out I was saved. Is it possible there are still people who are kind like this? I could have ended up on the street.”
After four months, her Social Security income was reestablished and she had received a voucher through Greene Metropolitan Housing Authority. The trio visited John Sale Manor to slowly go through the process of translating all the paperwork for Irinia’s new apartment. After a delay due to death in the Manor manager’s family, Irinia moved in on Dec. 15.
“I really like to cook – and eat – and I do it well,” she said. “I just enjoy the fact that bombs aren’t flying. You can lie down peacefully and wake up peacefully.”
Irinia misses her home and often fights loneliness. Her son remains in Ukraine with his wife and child. Since he is of conscription age, he is unable to leave and fears being forced to fight. Communication with him and friends at home is sporadic. With Loretta’s help, she has found other Russian-speaking friends and continues to learn English. Those friends also help with repeated paperwork for her Temporary Protected Status as a refugee.
“I think you can survive anything in life,” Irinia said. “This is the most terrible of all wars. I understand war does not make people kind. I am very glad that I met such people.”
*Client’s name has been changed.